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Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style
This article consists of basic style guidelines to follow when editing or creating new pages for Mass Effect Wiki. (N.B.: parts of this guide are written in UK English.) Writing Articles Reference * — Basic information on how to enter text and formatting * — Information on how to upload and use images (and other media like movies or sounds) *Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/General (talk) — Overall general stylistic and editorial guidelines *Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/Planets (talk) — How to lay out a planet details page *Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/Systems (talk)— How to lay out a system details page *Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/Clusters (talk) — How to lay out a cluster details page *Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/Missions (talk) — How to lay out a mission details page *Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/Assignments (talk) — How to lay out an assignments details page *Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/Equipment (talk) — How to lay out an equipment details page *Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/Merchants (talk) — How to lay out a merchant or shop pages *Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/Adversaries (talk) — How to lay out an adversary's details page *Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/Unique Dialogue Page (talk) — How to lay out a character's unique dialogue page *Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/Class Guide Page (talk) — How to lay out a guide for the individual classes *Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/Races (talk) — How to lay out a race page *Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/Powers (talk) — How to lay out a power page *Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/Comics (talk) — How to lay out a comic issue page *Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/Comics/Hub (talk) — How to lay out a comic series' hub page Editing Articles need to be accessible, readable and accurate. That means good spelling and grammar, breaking up long articles into sections, not using excessive technical language, and writing in simple, concise sentences. The rule of thumb is "speak plainly and accurately." Here's an example of a MEWiki article being edited in the source editor (click to see larger version): Comments, ideas and personal input should go on the Talk page for that article. MEWiki policy is not to sign edits on articles, only on Talk pages, and articles themselves are not signed (e.g. we have a Vanguard Guide, not My Kickass Vanguard Guide). Accept that your work will be edited by someone at some point. If you disagree with the edits, discuss it with the user who changed them. However, if you cannot accept your writing being edited at all, reconsider whether you want to contribute to the wiki or whether the information would be better posted on another website. Underscores in links The Mass Effect Wiki follows a standard of replacing underscores _ with spaces in wiki links in order to keep the source code clean and human-readable. While Mass_Effect:_Foundation and Mass Effect: Foundation both go to the same page, and the former is offered up by the autocomplete functionality during edit mode, the latter form is preferred. Exceptions are allowable if underscores are *actually a part of the link: ' ' *in a one-brace link to external sites because spaces instead of pipes | denote the first separator between the URL and the link label: English Wikipedia home page Do not capitalise alien race names Unlike most species in science fiction, the names of Mass Effect's alien races are common nouns – and so are not capitalised. Write "asari", not "Asari". While editing, ask the question: if you were writing about humans, would you capitalise the word "human" in your sentence? The following contextual examples show incorrect capitalisation as underlined, followed by the appropriate correction: :Incorrect: "The Geth are known to be reclusive. The Geth hid for a long time behind the Perseus Veil." :Correct: "The geth are notoriously reclusive. For three centuries, the geth remained hidden beyond the Perseus Veil." :Incorrect: "The Geth have evolved considerably since their creation by the Quarians." :Correct: "The geth have evolved considerably since the quarians created them." If part of a proper noun, the capitalisation of race name is exempted: such as a race's government, as well as titles which refer to an enemy unit or character class. Note that multiplayer character classes are included as titles. Also, certain race names are titles in essence, and should also be exempted from this convention: Collector, Jardaan, Leviathan, Prothean, Reaper, and Remnant. Some correct examples of exempted capitalisations, mixed with uncapitalised names: *"The volus are a client race of the Turian Hierarchy." *"The geth may deploy units such as Geth Armatures, Geth Hoppers, and Geth Troopers." *"The Drell Vanguard is a character class in Mass Effect 3's multiplayer mode." *"The Thanix Cannon was developed by utilising technology from the Reapers." Capitalizations While we don't capitalize the names of alien races, there are other things that need to be capitalized because they are proper nouns. When Shepard is referred to by rank, Commander needs to be capitalized because that is what "the Commander" is referring to. The names of the various classes, Sentinel, Vanguard, Infiltrator, Soldier, Engineer, and Adept, are also to be capitalized. This is because they are referencing a specific thing, in this case the player's class, they should be capitalized. The various Talents and Powers, like Throw, Lift, and Singularity, should also be capitalized. As they are also referencing specific items, in this case the Talents and Powers, which are proper nouns, they need to be capitalized. Proper Names There are currently six games in the Mass Effect series: Mass Effect, Mass Effect Galaxy, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect: Infiltrator, Mass Effect 3, and Mass Effect: Andromeda. There is no game called Mass Effect 1 and as such, the title Mass Effect 1 is not allowed in articles. Also note that, as we are striving to be an encyclopedic source of information, abbreviations like ME, ME2, ME3, etc are not to be used in main articles. The full and proper name of the game being referred to should be put into the article where appropriate. This also applies for the novels and comic books. Their proper and full names, Mass Effect: Redemption, Mass Effect: Revelation, Mass Effect: Ascension, etc., should be used in articles where appropriate. Canon Some wikis – particularly Wookieepedia – which are working from a long-established and defined canon, have clear guidelines as to whether a character is male / female, and what decisions are canon, and write articles accordingly. Because Mass Effect is open for players to create their own story through their decisions, MEWiki does not hold one particular course of action or aspect of character creation as canon, but gives equal credence to player choices. :Incorrect: "Commander Shepard saved Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz." :Incorrect: "Commander Shepard kills Lord Darius on Nonuel." :Correct: "Commander Shepard's possible psychological profiles include saving Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz, surviving a thresher maw attack on Akuze, or ruthlessly killing batarian pirates during the siege of Torfan." :Correct: "Commander Shepard may choose to kill Lord Darius on Nonuel, or negotiate a peaceful settlement." For this reason, Commander Shepard is not depicted on the wiki's screenshots. Though there is a representative / default Shepard used in promotional art, on MEWiki this version of Shepard is not considered canon to the exclusion of all others, particularly as Shepard can be either male or female and of any ethnicity. As creating an individual character who is shaped by decisions is an integral part of Mass Effect, and all characters are unique, not depicting Shepard keeps MEWiki universal for all Mass Effect players, and gives credence to their decisions and character customisation. This also means Shepard is not referred to by gender in articles (see below). However, images of Shepard are allowed under certain specific circumstances and those images are strictly regulated (also see below). Shepard and Gender Because Commander Shepard can be either male or female, MEWiki writes Shepard as gender-neutral and uses Shepard's rank instead of a male / female pronoun. For example: :Incorrect: "Commander Shepard and his crew explore the galaxy looking for Saren." :Correct: "Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy explore the galaxy looking for Saren", or :Correct: "When Sha'ira asks Shepard for help, the Commander agrees to speak to Septimus on her behalf." The exception is when discussing romances, as this is the only area where gender makes any real difference: :Incorrect: "Commander Shepard can pursue a romance with Ashley Williams." :Correct: "If Commander Shepard is male, he can pursue a romance with Ashley Williams", or :Correct: "Regardless of Shepard's gender, the Commander can pursue a romance with Liara T'Soni." For this same reason, we ask that editors please refrain from inserting images that depict Commander Shepard into articles. This does include images of the "default" male and female Shepard. Explicitly, they aren't allowed in in-universe and walkthrough articles. There are only a few exceptions - most notably the Commander Shepard page itself, then Armor images, Romance sections, and the Combat trio of articles for the express purpose of depicting Shepard use relevant concepts written. Any image must be of the default male or female Shepard, and care should be taken to avoid showing as many distinguishing features as possible, like hair and facial features. If there is any question as to whether an image is acceptable, ask an admin before you add it to the article. Perspective The intro paragraphs to most of our articles are written from the perspective of when they were introduced. For example, the Systems Alliance article is written from the perspective of someone who hasn't played Mass Effect yet, where as the Drell article is written from the perspective of when they were introduced in Mass Effect 2. These paragraphs are supposed to provide a brief intro to the article and contain no plot spoilers. If there are new developments, please put them under the appropriate spoiler tag. Walkthrough Information in Articles Because most of our articles are written from an in-game perspective, we do not put walkthrough information into main articles. All articles must be kept as if written from an in-game perspective and contain information about who or what they are about. Walkthrough information should be put into the various walkthrough articles where it is appropriate. Also, please avoid using second person pronouns like you and yours in main articles for the same reasons. However, there are specific sections where this rule is lifted. The first exception is in the tactics section of various enemy articles, and only in that section. The rest of the article should be kept as if written from an in-game perspective. The second exception is the walkthrough articles themselves where that kind of talk is appropriate. Apart from those two exceptions, please avoid putting walkthrough information and using second person pronouns in main articles. Spoilers Since the Wiki has a major focus on lore material, a lot of articles are bound to contain spoilers and thus may require the appropriate spoiler tags as explained further in the main link above. Walkthroughs are inherently spoilers and so do not require spoiler tags. The same goes for majority of the gameplay-oriented articles, with notable exceptions like Romance and the three Morality Guides. Trivia sections Trivia sections have a tendency to get out of hand because they are easy to add to. However, in many cases, what was added is not trivia, or is important or interesting enough to be merged into the article proper. Trivia is classified as information players may not have been aware of and is impactful or interesting. Ideally trivia sections should be no more than half a dozen snippets of information, not more than a line or so long. In practice, most legitimate trivia is comprised of behind-the-scenes information adequately sourced from developers themselves as per the sourcing guidelines. Name trivia should be kept to a minimum, and confined to cases where it is either confirmed by a developer, where it conforms to current naming procedures, such as the naming of astronomical bodies after mythological figures, or where a reasonable connection can be made. Coincidental similarities are not trivia. Note that straight comparisons in things that really are otherwise unrelated are not enough to justify trivia. Looks alike/sounds alike is not enough grounds. If making such a comparison, then a connection must be made to the function of the item to back up the claim and in order to justify it. Also note that because all squad members have extra dialogue during missions, it isn't considered trivia. If you come across it, then please look at the style guide for dialogue pages and place it on the appropriate Character's page. Please be reminded that popular opinion is not grounds for valid trivia. Examples of Incorrect and Correct Trivia: :Incorrect: :*'The Justicar Code has over five thousand sutras and covers every situation a justicar may encounter.' This is not trivia because it is a key element of the Code and should be in the article proper. :*'Alko is also the name of the national alcohol retailing monopoly of Finland.' This is not trivia because, as there is nothing in the planet description suggesting any link, it is sheer coincidence. :Correct: :*'Ashley was originally to recite Robert Heinlein's "Cool Green Hills of Earth." The rights for Heinlein's work are rather complex, and when time ran out to acquire permission, it was replaced with Tennyson's "Ulysses," which is in the public domain. The second and third stanzas were used when she discussed her father, and the fourth and final on the way to Ilos.' :*'When Shepard asks about how the virus works, in the first conversation, Legion will respond with; "An equation with an result of 1.33382 returns as 1.33381. This changes the result of all higher processes. We will reach different conclusions." This is a reference to the Pentium FDIV bug.' :*'Turian is based on the word centurion. Palaven is based on Palatine Hill, with a dash of "paladin." Turian names, culture, and military doctrine also mirror that of the Roman Empire, especially their emphasis on colonizing enemies.' Voice Actor Trivia When it comes to a character's voice actor a specific bit of trivia is allowed. However, because voice actors are often involved in multiple projects, trivia about them appearing in a game developed by BioWare, like Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age: Origins, is acceptable, while games not developed by BioWare is not. The connection must be made between the games in order to justify trivia. Also provide a link to the wiki that has the necessary information, if it is available. For example: :Incorrect: "Keith David has also voiced the Arbiter in Halo 2 and 3." :Correct: "Claudia Black also voiced the character Morrigan in Dragon Age: Origins, another BioWare game." :Correct: "Simon Templeman, who voices Admiral Gerrel, also provided the voice for Teyrn Loghain Mac Tir in the game Dragon Age: Origins, also by BioWare." It is also acceptable to note voice actor information in the trivia sections of articles about non-character subjects, such as in the articles SSV Normandy and Leviathan, or adversaries that don't/cannot have their own character box, like Alestia Iallis. Speculation MEWiki has a "low tolerance policy" on speculation in articles. This is due to an incident when an editor created a new race and star systems, and began incorporating them into articles as fact. As the PC version for Mass Effect came out, this confused several contributors as to whether a new race had been added in the PC version. Finding and rooting out these edits created problems, and so this policy was introduced. Speculation is permitted in articles under the following circumstances: *There is evidence for this speculation. For example: ::Incorrect: "Quarians once had fur, but after wearing environmental suits for hundreds of years this trait has died out." ::Correct: "Some speculate that if they join the Council, humans will have a major military role because they have a substantial fleet, well-trained army and adaptable military doctrine (see Systems Alliance)." *If the speculation refers to an unreleased game or novel, put a link at the end of the sentence to an interview or article supporting that speculation. For example: ::Incorrect: "This decision is pivotal to the story." ::Correct: "This decision is pivotal to the story link to supporting article." Note that in order for the ref tags to work, a References section must be set up first. If speculation is not substantiated or qualified, it will be removed. Codex Articles Codex articles are verbatim copies of the in-game Codex. For this reason, we ask that editors not make changes to the substance of the articles, including the images used. As all the Codex entries were transcribed by ordinary human beings, some errors in spelling and grammar are bound to pop up, and these can be remedied by anyone who comes across them. Other than that, we ask that the Codex pages be left as they are. The same applies to pictures: if a picture isn't the Codex entry picture, we ask that you don't insert it into the Codex. All Codex entries are recorded regardless of when and where they appear. The only way an entry is not recorded is if the entry text doesn't change from game to game. For example, the Primary Entries in Aliens: Council Races for the asari, turians, and salarians do not change from when they are introduced in Mass Effect, so they only need one entry. For entries where the text does change, and the entry appears in the same place, then use a separate heading for each game. For example, the entry for the Normandy SR-2 changes from Mass Effect 2 to Mass Effect 3, so a heading is used to distinguish the entries. Codex entries are classified by the game from which they were transcribed, meaning that if an entry is a Primary entry in Mass Effect, yet a Secondary entry in Mass Effect 2, then the Primary Codex entry remains and the Secondary is added and not omitted. For example, the entry for Kinetic Barriers is a Primary entry in Mass Effect, yet a Secondary entry in Mass Effect 2. Despite the fact it appears in both games in separate places, and the text is the same, both entries are recorded. For Codex entries with an audio entry, if the audio entry differs from the text entry, then no action should be taken. Text entries are verbatim from the game and stay that way regardless of what the audio entry says. The text entry should reflect the in-game text Codex entry, not the audio entry, regardless of any discrepancy between the two. Sic Tags Because of the amount of information that we copy verbatim, or word-for-word, from the games, from time to time, we do encounter errors in spelling, grammar, term usage, and other things. Because we are not here to correct those kind of things, we use Sic tags ( ) to note these errors from the original source. These errors and the sic tags are to remain in the articles and are not to be removed. Any edits that remove these tags or the things they indicate will be reverted on sight and without explanation. The list of these things includes but is not limited to: *Various Descriptions (Weapons, Planets, Upgrades, Research Items) *Journal entries for Missions and Assignments *Emails *Datapads *Audio Logs *Quotes Spelling A quick spellcheck before saving your edit is greatly appreciated. If you don't have a spellcheck add-on in your browser, preview the article first and read it through to check for any mistakes. British or American Spelling? Mass Effect Wiki has editors from the US, the UK, and everywhere else where people subscribe to one form of English or the other, so there are sometimes questions over which spelling is 'correct'. Both of them are. However Mass Effect is written in American English, which means equipment articles like 'Human Armor' have American spelling. So if you're using that article title in a page, it might look odd to have both English and American spelling (e.g. the sentence "Mass Effect has several types of armour, including Human Armor and Quarian Armor" looks a bit strange). The rule of thumb is: either spelling is 'correct', so don't correct 'English English' unnecessarily. Templates Mass Effect Wiki uses templates extensively to avoid the tedium of needing to make dozens (or hundreds!) of changes to standardized markup and text. Redirects Redirects are usually created when a page is moved (i.e. renamed): the original page is given a redirect. This is accomplished automatically by replacing the old page with one which just contains the text #REDIRECT NewPageName For example, the Argus Rifle page redirects to the M-55 Argus article. It is also entirely possible to manually create such pages using the #REDIRECT directive. This can be useful since such pages will show up in searches and can provide sensible aliases (e.g. Shepard redirects to Commander Shepard). This also provides a convenient way to naturally add links to wiki pages without needing to resort to visible text. However, please refrain from creating large numbers of redirects which are not likely to ever be needed. Also note also that the wiki automatically understands markup like turians, rendering the whole thing as 'turians'. Categories Put simply, help other users find things. This includes articles and screenshots. For example, Category:Krogan collects all articles related to the krogan and any media depicting them. The categories on the Mass Effect Wiki are organized into a which is rooted by Category:Browse. To change the parents of a category, simply edit the category page and add or remove Category:SomeCategoryName links. To add any wiki page to a category, simply add Category:SomeCategoryName to the page (by convention, at the end) or click the "Add Category" tab at the bottom. A page can be a member of any number of categories. Once the page is saved, the categories which it is in will appear at the bottom of the page. To categorize a screenshot, either click on the screenshot itself and again, click "Add Category" or hit "Edit" and add categories as you would for any other article. If you wish to upload an image and categorize it at the same time, add Category:SomeCategoryName to the summary of the screenshot on the upload page. If you are creating a new category, the category page itself needs to be created. When creating the page, include a brief description of the purpose of the category, the category template, and add the category itself to any parent categories. For example, This is an example of a page. Category:Browse Category:Help If you want to provide a link to an entire category, you will need to add it as Category:SomeCategory, with a colon before the word 'category'. Otherwise you'll simply place the page in that category instead of creating a link. What Categories? For articles, the categories used should cover the broad themes of the article and be a logical category to find the article under. :Example: Matriarch Benezia is categorised as a character: she is an (asari), she is a notable adversary, she is known for being a powerful biotic, and she is only seen on Noveria. Therefore these categories are used for her. For images, the categories should be for what is visible in the image. If the image is of an asari mercenary using biotics on Illium, the appropriate categories would be asari, biotics, mercenaries, and Illium. Media Usage Conventions Please consult the wiki's Files Guideline for the in-depth specifications regarding uploaded files. That page also contains the policy regarding personal images uploaded to the site. Splitting Articles Along Game Lines After much discussion, we have decided not to split main articles along Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3 lines. Articles like Assignments and Missions are not going to be split because they have all the various parts from all games and a split is not needed. Redirects will be provided to take people to the relevant sections of those articles. However, articles like Adept Guide and Adept Guide (Mass Effect 2), which deal with specific elements of the game, in this case a guide, are to be split because they have a lot of content that deals with a specific game. These articles are split because of the mutually exclusive content. Headquotes The Mass Effect Wiki does permit the use of headquotes in articles in specific locations and each is subject to different rules. All quotes must be spoken by the character and apply to Major Characters. Major Characters are defined as squadmates, major storyline NPCs (David Anderson, Donnel Udina, Armando-Owen Bailey, Illusive Man), major enemies (Saren Arterius, Harbinger, Sovereign), and NPCs who fill those roles in downloadable content packs. *At the top of the article: This headquote must be from the game in which the character was introduced, and must represent the character as a whole. Meaning if we are talking about Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, the quote must be from Mass Effect. **There are exceptions for Miranda Lawson and Jacob Taylor, whose quotes are from Mass Effect 2 rather than Mass Effect Galaxy, due to the larger role of the game and the presence of more dialogue. *At the top of the "Romance" section. This quote must not be a funny line, but a more serious one describing the relationship. **If a character has multiple romance sections, then a headquote is permitted in each one, but the quote in each must be from the game they are about. *At the top of the "Loyalty" section. This quote must be spoken by the character during their loyalty mission in Mass Effect 2. It must represent what the mission is about, what is going on, and show the impact the mission has on the character. *If the character is present in multiple games, for example, Garrus Vakarian, there can be a headquote at the top of the article, and at the top of the relevant sections dealing with other games. With Garrus as an example, the article can have a headquote at the top of the article as well as the "Mass Effect 2" section, the Mass Effect 2 "Romance" and "Loyalty" subsections, the "Mass Effect 3" section, and the Mass Effect 3 "Romance" subsection. Headquotes may be inserted and changed, but if a change is reverted, then a discussion about changing it must take place on the corresponding talk page. However, it is recommended that the initial quote be discussed so that there aren't multiple discussions to change it. Any current headquotes in articles that are not in these specified sections will still be permitted under this policy, but subject to the same rules about changing them out. Bugs, Exploits, Bug Solutions, and their Confirmation Because of the nature of video games, over time people will encounter bugs, exploits, ways to fix bugs or exploits, come across conflicting information, and interesting ways of using things or taking down enemies that may not work again. Because of this, we must have at least three users confirm things of this nature on the relevant talk page before they can be added into the relevant article(s). Information Sourcing In order to consolidate queries on the legitimacy of the numerous sources the wiki employs, the guide for information sourcing has been moved to its separate page here. External in-universe content In-universe lore content from official external sources (websites, blogs, Twitter, mobile apps, interactive content, etc.) are allowed to be copied to the wiki. In order not to disrupt the main articles and to give an added value to the wiki, the following guidelines are to be applied: *added as subpages, except in some argued cases; *transcribed verbatim as far as possible; *as for every article on the wiki, if the content contradicts a specific playthrough, it has to be clearly specified as a note or trivia; *clear links to related internet pages are included if applicable; *the layout and the organisation should be reader-friendly; *the disparate content that relates a single story is to be aggregated on a single page; *the content can support the relevant main articles with direct wikilinks; *as each source is different, the organisation of each project has to be discussed before implementation.